James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

18 comments:

Hi, Katherine, I'm finding that casein forces me to make decisions quickly, especially when it comes to softening edges and matching values. I can't be as deliberate or ruminative as I am in oil. That makes it great for super-quick paintings, especially on the spot and in sketchbooks. I love the fact that I can overlap and cover any previous passage without worrying about a layer lifting up.

For those who don't know, Katherine runs the wonderful blog Making a Mark http://makingamark.blogspot.com/Best wishes recovering from the eye surgery!

Daroo, good question. It stays open a bit longer relative to gouache. This time I didn't put the dabs of paint onto damp paper towel, but still the paint was mostly workable for the whole two hour session. I have to adjust my brain to softening edges as I go.

Drew--awesome! thanks for the lead. If anyone else has links or lore related to the way illustrators and animators used casein in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, please share.

Top results, as always! And you say you're still only getting the hang of them?

The introductory post about casein perked my interest (the qualities sound interesting, and if James Gurney likes it...!) Pelikan Plaka casein paint is more conveniently available this side of the Atlantic than Jack Richeson colors, but the discount in the Amazon link here is very tempting and Plaka seems to be more of a 'craft' paint. Can I ask if anyone has, or knows of, any comparison between the two brands?

That's really interesting to follow your casein journey. My knowledge of casein paints is limited to what I've read. When the Danish artist Joakim Skovgaard was given the task of decorating the cathedral in Viborg, Denmark, he considered casein for the task and made some tests with it. He eventually ended up doing it al fresco instead, but one of his test murals in casein was apparently considered good enough and was included in the final decoration.

I guess I am being thick headed and still not getting the open time. Once you have applied the casein to the ground how long do you have to work it? In one place you say a little longer that gouache - which is minutes and in another place you say 2 hours (but I think you are referring to paint on the palette?). Thanks for helping to clear up my confusion!

Yes, exactly, and it's a good question. The drying time seems to be affected not only by temperature and humidity, but also by thickness of the passage. Super thin passages seem to dry almost on contact, but big blobs of paint stay wet for quite a while.

In case you might not know it, there are two types of casein: true casein and emulsion casein.When dry, True casein becomes truly waterproof and "closed," it cannot be manipulated, which is good if you want to overpaint. Also, true case is a make it yourself paint, available in kit form from Natural Pigments.Emulsion casein, on the other hand, will remain "open" even after it is dry. Available from Richardson/Shiva, it comes in tubes, along with an emulsion medium.

I'm a little late here, but I was watching the video Drew posted and it's fabulous. It was very interesting to see how Eyvind Earle wielded the casein. It seemed he almost used it like a very thinned down acrylic paint and using one color at a time, but not really mixing on canvas.

I've been intrigued to try Casein paints because of you James. I found some information that Eyvind Earle stopped using casein because of it's fragile nature and switched to acrylic for preservation.

Hi, James, I've been reading your blog for a little while and I love every post! I noticed in the video that you sketched the face in paint, I've seen people do this a lot but no one talks about so I was wondering if you could elaborate on that, if you don't mind. Thanks!

Hi, Christopher,Good question. I suppose the trick is to think of painting as another form of drawing. You're finding it in the paint instead of in the pencil or the charcoal. You probably noticed me dropping in dots for the placement of the features, just as I would have done with a drawing too.

If you check out Harold Speed's books, he has an exercise where you execute a head with a brush and monochrome oil, and he calls it "mass drawing."